98 CON 
Species, i. Co,nocarpus erebta, or Jamaica button-tree : 
erett ; leaves lanceolate. This is an upright branching 
tree, frequently exceeding thirty feet in height; the 
younger branches angular; leaves acute, quite entire, 
greafy to the touch, alternate, on very ihort broad pe¬ 
tioles, numerous. The flowers are fmall, and of a yel- 
lowifh colour; in the ifland of Martinico they have ten 
Itamens, twice as long as the calyx ; in other places they 
have five Itamens only, not longer than the calyx ; but 
the fiyle is twice as long. Perhaps this may be a dif¬ 
ferent fpecies. The head of flowers is globular, but of 
fruits rather ovate. Native of the Weft Indies, and all 
the coafts of America between the tropics in great plenty, 
near the lea and in fait water. For burning it is efteemed 
the belt wood in thole latitudes, but being fmall it is of 
little other ufe. The Englilh call it button-tree and 
button-wood ; the Spaniards, mangle Saragoza. 
2. Conocarpus procumbens : procumbent; leaves obo- 
vate. This is a very branching ftirub, almoft the whole 
of it procumbent ; leaves obovate, but fometimes ap¬ 
proaching a little to a roundilh form, blunt with a point, 
Ihining, quite entire, alternate, petioled, an inch or an 
inch and a half in length, -with an oblong gland on the 
edge next the bale on both fides; flowers with five 
(fometimes fix) flame ns, in other refpects like the fore¬ 
going, only (mailer in all their parts. Native of Cuba, 
on rocks near the coaft. This may, perhaps, be only a 
variety of the foregoing. The farther it is removed from 
the coaft, the more the leaves approach in their form to 
tliole of the erecta, and the more upright fome of the 
branches become. Miller fays it has fliort crooked 
branches, covered with a greyilh bark, and having thick 
leaves on their upper parts, a little larger than thofe of 
the dwarf box, on Ihort petioles, and placed on every 
tide without order. The flowers are in fmall round 
heads, coming out fingly from the fide of the branches, 
and in loofe lpikes at the end ; they are fmall and of an 
herbaceous colour ; the fades are rough, and the cones 
are of a loofer texture than thofe of the former fort. It 
was difeovered by Dr. Houftoun growing plentifully in 
the marfliy grounds near the fea, at the Havanna, whence 
he lent the feeds to England in 1730. 
3. Conocarpus racemofa : leaves lanceolate-ovate, 
bluntifli ; fruits fegregate. This is a lofty and branch¬ 
ing tree, fometimes dividing into three or four trunks 
dole to the ground ; younger branches Ihining, red, and 
oppofite ; leaves deep green, three inches long, on a red 
petiole, with two glands at the top of it. Native of the 
Caribbee illands and the neighbouring continent, on landy 
and muddy Ihores. The Spaniards call it mangle hobo, or 
foolilh mangle ; the Englilh, white mangrove. The na¬ 
tives employ the bark for tanning leather: thefe trees 
feem to be otherwife of little ufe. 
Propagation and Culture. The two firft fpecies are pre- 
ferved in fome curious gardens for the fake of variety, but 
they are plants of no great beauty ; they are propagated 
from feeds, which mull be obtained from the places of 
their natural growth, for they never produce any good 
feeds in Europe ; thele feeds, if they are frefli, will come 
up very foon, if they are lown upon a good hot-bed ; 
and, if the plants are potted, and preferved in the bark- 
ftove, they will make great progrefs; but they are too 
tender to live in this country, unlefs they are conllantly 
kept in the ftove, and treated in the fame manner with 
other exotic plants ; obferving, as they are natives of 
i'wamps, to fupply them often with water ; but in winter 
they mull have it very fparingly. The plants are ever¬ 
green, calling oft'their old leaves when the new come but. 
CONOCRAM'BE,/ in botany. See Thei.igonum. 
CONOID,/ [from y.u>y<&, a cone, and refem- 
blance.] A figure partaking of a cone 3 approaching to 
the form of a cone.—The tympanum is not capable of 
tenfion as a drum : there remains another way, by draw¬ 
ing it to the center into a conoid form. Holder. 
CON 
The geometrical diftinbtion between a cone and a 
conoid, is this, that the Ilant lides from the bale to the 
vertex, are not ftraight lines as in the cone, but curved. 
The conoid is generated by the revolution of a conic 
febtion about its axis ; and it is therefore threefold, an- 
fwering to the three febtions of the cone, viz, the ellip¬ 
tical conoid, or fpheroid, the hyperbolic conoid, and the 
parabolic conoid. If a conoid be cut by a plane in any 
petition, the febtion will be of the figure of fome one of 
the conic febtions ; and all parallel febtions of the fame 
conoid are like and fimilar figures. When the febtion of 
the folid returns into itfelf, it is an ellipfe ; which is al¬ 
ways the cafe in tire lections of the fpheroid, except 
. when it is perpendicular to the axis ; which pofition is 
alfo to be excepted in the other folids, the febtion being 
always a circle in that pofition. In the parabolic conoid, 
tire febtion is always an ellipfe, except when it is paral 
lei to the axis. And in the hyperbolic conoid, the flec¬ 
tion is an ellipfe, -when its axis makes with the axis of 
the folid, an angle greater than that made by the faid 
axe of the folid and the afymptote of the generating 
hyperbola ; the febtion being an hyperbola in all other 
cafes, but vdien thofe angles are equal, and then it is a 
parabola. But when the leblion is parallel to the fixed 
axis, it is-of tire fame kind with, arid fimilar to the ge¬ 
nerating plane itfelf; that is, the febtion parallel to the 
axis, in the fpheroid, is an elliple fimilar to the generat¬ 
ing ellipfe ; in the parabolic conoid it is a parabola linri- 
lar to the generating one ; and in the hyperbolic conoid, 
it is an hyperbola fimilar to the generating one. The 
feblion through the axis, which is the generating plane, 
is, in the fpheroid, the greatell of the parallel lections, 
but in the hyperboloid it is the lead, and in the para¬ 
boloid thofe parallel febtions are all equal. 
The analogy of the febtions of the hyperboloid to 
thofe of the cone, are very remarkable,, all the three 
conic febtions being formed by cutting an hyperboloid 
in the fame pofitions as the cone is cut. Thus, let an 
hyperbola and its afymptote be revolved together about 
the tranfverfe axis, the former defcribing an hyperbo¬ 
loid, and the latter a cone circumfcribing it: then let 
it be fuppofed that they are both cut by one plane in 
any pofition ; fo (hall the two febtions be like, fimilar, 
and concentric figures : that is, if the plane cut both 
the fides of each, the febtions will be concentric and 
fimilar ellipfes ; but if the cutting plane be parallel to 
the afymptote, or to the fide of the cone, the febtions 
will be parabolas; and. in all other pofitions, the fec- 
tions will be fimilar and concentric hyperbolas. And 
this analogy of the febtions will not feem ftrange, when 
it is conlidered that a cone is a fpecies of the hyperbo¬ 
loid; or a triangle a fpecies of the hyperbola, the axes 
being infinitely fmall. 
CONOID'ICAL, adj. Approaching to a conic form, 
to the form of a round decreafing. 
CO'NON (of Samos), a mathematician and philofo- 
pher, who flourifhed about the 130th olympiad, being a 
contemporary and friend of Archimedes, to whom Conon 
communicated his writings, and fent him fome problems, 
which Archimedes received with approbation, faying they 
ought to be publifhed while Conon was living, for he com¬ 
prehends them with eal’e, and can give a proper demon- 
Itration of them. He had an uncommon (kill in the 
mathematics, joined to extraordinary patience and ap¬ 
plication. Conon had fome difputes c with Nicoteles, 
who wrote againft him, and treated him with much con¬ 
tempt. Appollonius confefles it ; though he acknow¬ 
ledges that Conon was not fortunate in his demonftrations. 
Conon invented a kind of volute or fpiral, different from 
that of Dynoftratus ; but, becaufe Archimedes explained 
the properties of it more clearly, the name of the inventor 
was forgotten, and it was hence called Archimedes’s vo¬ 
lute or fpiral. As to Conon’s aftrological or altronomical 
knowledge, it may in fome mealure be gathered from 
the 
